


Two Streets

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 05:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14325344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Immediately following TSbyBS; Blair has to decide whether to accept Simon's offer of a detective's badge





	Two Streets

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Bingo prompt 'fork in the road'

Two Streets

by Bluewolf

Because they had gone separately to the PD, Jim and Blair drove home separately, in their respective vehicles.

As he drove, Blair thought over Simon's offer. "Go to the Police Academy and complete firearms training. And if you do, Detective Ellison is looking for a permanent official partner."

He hadn't given a positive answer; but it was tempting. Okay, as Simon in particular had kept reminding him, he hadn't been a cop, but working with Jim he had been pretty well doing a cop's work a lot of the time, and on the whole he had enjoyed it. Granted, there had been things he hadn't enjoyed, things he knew Jim didn't enjoy. Victims were victims, suffering because of the crimes committed against them; but finding the perpetrators was satisfying.

His mind flashed back to Susan Frasier's body. He knew Jim thought she was the first murdered person he had seen - but his reaction to seeing her had been a split-second one designed to mislead Jim into thinking that. He hadn't wanted to explain to Jim that he'd seen worse - as a nineteen-year-old student on what was meant to be a short (four-week) summer expedition to Papua New Guinea led by Eli Stoddard. They had made contact with the village they were to be studying, spent a very enjoyable afternoon with the twenty-seven people who lived there, then moved a mile or so away and set up their camp. In the morning they returned to the village - to find a scene of carnage. The villagers were all dead. And all the bodies had been cut open, disembowelled and the hearts and livers removed.

"Cannibalism," Eli had whispered. He had led the students back to their camp, they had packed up and returned to 'civilization', Eli had reported the atrocity, got their plane tickets changed and they had returned to Cascade.

It was not something any of them would forget... or want to tell anyone about.

And Blair knew that nothing he might encounter as a cop could ever rival the absolute horror of that day.

***

After dinner, he opened his laptop and with some trepidation accessed his email. Since his press conference he had received several very nasty posts, which he had instantly deleted. He was seriously thinking of changing his email address.

There was an email from Eli Stoddard. He hesitated before opening it; Eli would not be nasty, but he was probably disappointed...

He took a deep breath and clicked on it.

_"Dear Blair,_

_"You don't have to tell me that someone else took the lid off Pandora's Box, and you had to provide damage limitation. I know that's what must have happened. You are too ethical; no way would you have compromised your... let's say your 'informant's' privacy._

_"You never officially submitted that document as your dissertation, did you. Edwards was simply being spiteful when she terminated your position at Rainier. She never did appreciate you - your knowledge, your ability._

_"I'm planning another trip to Borneo, leaving early next month. Will you come with me this time?_

_"Eli."_

Stunned, Blair sat and reread the email. Eli. didn't. doubt. him. That alone... even without the offer of a place...

What should he do? For a moment he remembered a line from a song he had first heard years previously...

_/Two streets, which one will I take? I do not know.../_

Simon's offer or Eli's?

Jim's voice behind him made him jump. "It's a good offer, Chief... and it would do a lot to restore your reputation as an anthropologist."

"I know," Blair murmured. "And if I take it and leave, it would kill any speculation that you are indeed a sentinel. If I accept Simon's offer, take firearms training and become your official partner, how many people would realize it was the press conference that was the lie? Why would you accept a fraud as your partner unless he actually wasn't a fraud? You're not known as a man who readily forgives - well, anything."

"I've been thinking about that," Jim said. "I've been thinking of holding my own press conference. No - not admitting publicly that I'm a sentinel, just saying that I do have excellent sight and hearing and that gave you the idea for a novel. I knew you were using real names, including mine, in the first draft of that novel about a sentinel who was a cop, because you were more used to writing reports and using real names let you focus better on your characters' actions and reactions. You wrote that draft in the form of a thesis, again because reports were what you were used to writing. Your second draft would have changed the names and made the whole thing more of a narrative."

"It might work," Blair said slowly. "I admit, this offer of Eli's is tempting, but at the same time... I'm your guide, and although my guide instinct is to protect you, your privacy... I know you need me, and how can I help ground you if I'm in Borneo?"

Jim gave an unamused chuckle. "And my sentinel instinct is to protect you, my guide. And that includes protecting your reputation... to the point of letting you leave, if what you really want is to go with Eli."

"If I could split myself in two... " Blair said. "If it's possible to stay without endangering you, that's my preference."

"Then I'll call my own press conference - and you answer Eli and tell him you're staying." He reached for the phone.

Blair hit 'reply'.

_"Dear Eli,_

_"Thank you. I appreciate your support, your offer, more than I can say. But I can't walk away from my responsibilities to my 'informant'. I've been offered a job working with him, and he thinks we can get around the 'fraud' thing._

_"Good luck with the expedition, and please stay in touch._

_"My grateful thanks, Blair"_

He read through it once more, and hit 'send'.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The song Blair remembers is Two Streets, sung by Val Doonican. The chorus goes
> 
> Two Streets, one of them leads to a world I love.  
> And the other, the street that leads me home.  
> Two Streets, which one will I take? I do not know.  
> If I take the first one, I'll be on my own! On my own.


End file.
